What to do before submitting your work (other than write)?

[Alchemist]

One of those questions that floats through my head every once in awhile but never really sticks long enough for me to do anything about is whether or not an aspiring author should do anything before looking for an agent, trying to find a publisher, and all that jazz?

Writing a good story goes without saying (well, it should, at least). But I'm talking about other stuff. For instance, starting a blog. Should one bother? What about attending conventions? What are things that one can do before even enters the trying-to-get-published fray?

Let me give you specifics so as to bring more clarity to my question. This summer will be the first time in some years that I will be able to dedicate a substantial amount of time to finishing the draft of a manuscript I've been fiddling with for years now. My hope is to finish the draft before the school year starts again in September (I'm a teacher), and then spend the next year fiddling and polishing it up, with the hope of it being ready for submission about a year from now. So I'm wondering: What, other than write, should I do in the mean-time? Is there anything I can do that will in any way improve my chances of finding an agent, publisher, etc?

I've thought of working on some short stories and trying to get them published. I've also thought of starting a blog. And so on. What do you think? Again, please spare me the "just write and finish a good story" comments. No kidding. But what else?

 

[MrBF1V3]

Before all those other things, if you can while you write, you'll need a synopsis; both long (2-3 pages) and short (1-2 paragraph). A good one sentence description of the story can also be helpful. Learn what editors and agents look for in these things, be competent. You won't really need these things until the story is finished, but if you are pursuing publication, you'll need them right away.

For that matter, look at a few submission guidelines, find out what works and what information you'll need to provide.

You'll need a bio, and perhaps something of interest to put in the bio. (I'm still working on that...)

I could also say something about good editing skills, and a thick skin, but one step at a time.

B5

 

[KatG]

Going to conventions can be useful for two things: 1) it lets you take a good look at the wider scope of the market and lets you talk to authors, see how some books are being promoted and just generally gather information while getting to know some of the most dedicated fans; and 2) it may, depending on the convention, give you a chance to talk to some agents and editors, possibly even in scheduled meetings. Obviously the best time for this would be when you have the ms. ready to send them, but it doesn't hurt to talk to them in the meantime, and when you are ready, you can use that meeting just to nudge them ("You were kind enough to talk to me at the World Fantasy Convention last year," yada, yada.) The agents and editors are at conventions primarily to promote their authors and lists, not to look for new ones, and they'll be distracted, but that doesn't mean they are adverse to running into a person who may end up having something they'll be interested in down the road.

Writers conferences also can let you talk to agents and editors, and in those cases, they are there specifically to look for new talent. And the conference might help you out with feedback for your rewriting of the ms. as well. But conferences and conventions do cost money, so you need to look at them carefully if you are going to do them.

Writing a blog doesn't necessarily get you anywhere (though if someone invites you to contribute to a web mag or site, definitely consider it.) But it doesn't hurt to start a blog and practice and play with it and figure out what you would want to do with a blog. The same for a Facebook author page or Twitter account -- it's mostly for you and for you figuring out what sort of presence you'd want to have as a potential author on the Web. Try not to piss too many people off with it.

Haunting bookstores, and book racks, all kinds, is a really good idea. Don't just look at the books in the special displays or with covers facing out. Also going to publishers' sites, all kinds, and checking out what they're doing on their lists. Check out Amazon's lists, self-published, whatever. Doing this gives you an idea of what's going on in the marketplace (and that it's broad,) and a better understanding of what authors are working in the same neighborhood as you in that marketplace. You'll have a better sense of who the publishers are -- sites like ralan.com can also help with that. And if it doesn't mess up your writing, read a lot of books. You can also go to some events at your local bookstore, if you have a local bookstore, and talk to authors doing the events, not about your work, but about theirs and maybe their experiences in publishing.

Start making an agents list. Check names against Writers Beware's warning lists to avoid scammers. Notice thanks to agents by authors you like in the acknowledgment page of books. Check and see if your library has a copy of the Literary Marketplace (LMP) if you're in the States, which is an annual reference directory of agents and publishers. Some agents have blogs -- you can get useful info from them and see if you want to put that agent on your agents list, plus there is general info on the Web. It's probably also a good idea to make lists of smaller presses and of self-publishing service companies like Amazon, Smashwords, etc., if you're interested in that avenue or think you might be if you can't get sold to a publisher.

Consider your network of friends and acquaintances. Some of them, or friends of theirs, might know agents or editors. When you're ready, you might be able to network some names for querying or even conning into reading your work. It doesn't guarantee you a sale, but getting their attention in a polite, associative way is one of the ways agents and editors may keep an eye out for new talent too.

All of this info may end up not being critical but it doesn't hurt either.

 

[robotosaur]

Do write and submit stories, if you have time and inclination. It's not going to hurt if your cover letter has some "previously published in"s.

 

[Window Bar]

Many agents and almost all publishers will want to know what you will be doing to help the marketing effort. A close family friend is a mystery writer, and his publisher will not even speak to anyone who doesn't have a web presence.

You might do reverse searches in order to come up with ideas. Take your top three new authors (i.e.--not Asimov or Tolkien), enter their names in a search, and list all of the primary sites (sites where their listings are under their control and volition) that they are active in. Author'sDen, FiledBy, GoodReads ... SffWorld -- then see how they are handling it

The marketing of an author is, essentially, the building of a brand name. So any positive presence you can build will give the publishing profession some confidence in you.

It's a long ol' slog. There are so-o-o-o many good writers.

 

[KatG]

Well yes and no, the building of a brand name, as Margaret Atwood pointed out recently, is largely now a thing of the past. Authors are building audiences one book at a time, and an author can have done decently but still get forced to change his name to fool the chain ordering computers (not the people at the chains you understand, just their computers,) for a new series. Authors are now tending to have websites for each series that they do with content specifically for the fun of fans of that series.

In mystery, they are quite behind what goes on in SFFH, because they don't have the system of conventions and really any magazine market to speak of, online or off. They have a community of readers but they don't communicate as much with each other as SFFH fans do. So mystery publishers want to make sure that a mystery author knows how to be online, first off, and therefore can be reachable for fans and at least do minimal promotion. But SFFH authors can be plugged into a lot of areas without having a formal website or blog.

Remember, authors are not as important to readers as their books and characters. So if you're building a brand, you're building the brand of your books, so you can look at what things you can promote from there. That being said, playing around with a blog or a Facebook page isn't going to kill you.

 

[Laer Carroll]

YOU are boring

Remember, authors are not as important to readers as their books and characters. So if you're building a brand, you're building the brand of your books, so you can look at what things you can promote from there.

Some readers may be an exception to that. But it’s certainly true for me. There are many writers whose style and skill I appreciate no matter what genre or series they write. But some of their books or series leave me totally cold.

I have been burned so many times by automatically buying the books of writers whose previous works I loved that I no longer do that. I sit down in the bookstore and read the first dozen or two pages. If that does not sell me, I skip it. And these are of writers who have written books or series I come back to again and again.

This means that your presence on Facebook and on your blog or website may not do anything for you as long as you talk about yourself. I mean, how many of us are rivetingly good-looking? Or have fascinating lives – fascinating to others, that is?

But talk about your characters, and THEIR lives, and the places and times THEY live in – totally different.

 

[Laer Carroll]

Creating your own writing sites

If you do want to create a site for your writing, go to the site I created to help you do that. It will take you step by step through the process.

http://authorssites.wordpress.com/

It will not cost you a penny to do this. It takes about half an hour. And the result looks good, is very spam resistant, almost never goes down, and readers never have to wait for a response unless they are at the same time uploading or downloading data.

Do not use Blogger, LiveJournal, or any other blogging system. Blogs are online diaries. No one (perhaps not even your mother!) wants to hear about your daily life. Your opinions are probably interesting only to you.

It is better to create a web site, which contains static information with occasional updates. It is better yet to create a hybrid site containing both static and dynamic information. So far the best of this type of platform is that of WordPress.

I created three sites to publicize my SFF writing. One is personal, but links to the two series sites, one for a fantasy and the other for a sci-fi series. Take a quick look at them to see what you could create for your writing.

http://laercarroll.com/
http://confederationtales.com/
http://shapechangertales.com/

Notice that all three open with the blog part of the site. And the only entries are short ones. And point readers to what is new on the site, such as part N of a novel. When (if!) my material starts to sell this blog part of each site will only include notices relating to that.

 

[Mark Lawrence]

You don't _have_ to do anything other than write a good yarn. But out of the things you've listed I'd say go for the short story writing. It develops good skills and gives you something to point at if you get stories into magazines.

 

[Window Bar]

Well yes and no, the building of a brand name, as Margaret Atwood pointed out recently, is largely now a thing of the past.

This is good to know. I no longer have to struggle to build my own readership; I can simply publish under the name Margaret Atwood. Seeing as how that brand name no has any value, she won't mind at all. No, wait... I think I'll do A Brief History of Good Times under the name Stephen Hawking.

 

[Window Bar]

This is good to know. I no longer have to struggle to build my own readership; I can simply publish under the name Margaret Atwood. Seeing as how that brand name no has any value, she won't mind at all. No, wait... I think I'll do A Brief History of Good Times under the name Stephen Hawking.

(Apologies, KatG, I couldn't resist!) -- WB

 

[KatG]

This is good to know. I no longer have to struggle to build my own readership; I can simply publish under the name Margaret Atwood. Seeing as how that brand name no has any value, she won't mind at all. No, wait... I think I'll do A Brief History of Good Times under the name Stephen Hawking.

A) Stephen Hawking is non-fiction. Authors are very important in non-fiction and are brand names. It's important not to confuse the two markets as they operate very differently. Non-fiction is the much bigger market.

B) Writing under the name of Margaret Atwood does not mean the book will perform, even if you're Margaret Atwood. Fiction readers, collectively, have no loyalty to authors whatsoever.

If you tease me, you get more lectures.

 

[Window Bar]

If you tease me, you get more lectures.

Ahh, but maybe I like lectures. Maybe I frequent a secret club where I have to convince the bouncer that I'm not law enforcement... so I can go into a dark smokey room and be lectured.

 

[hippokrene]

Fiction readers, collectively, have no loyalty to authors whatsoever.

Yet I picked up The Way of Kings despite my dislike of epic, multi-volume series just because Brandon Sanderson wrote it. And when my mother finds a mystery writer she likes, she'll often go to the library and order every book by that author.

I have no problem believing that the majority of fiction readers aren't loyal to an author (though they might become loyal to a series) but I think the ones who are loyal to an author matter more than your comment suggests.

 

[KatG]

You have loyalty to the author's writing, not to the author. If Brandon Sanderson starts his own perfume, you're probably not going to buy it. And if an author writes a series, book that you don't like, while you may try the book by the author based on him having delivered in the past, you may not continue with it. It's not that no fans ever stick with an author -- if that happened, we'd be sunk. It's that as a collective body, readers can not be counted on reliably to stick around just because of the author's name. A lot of people assume that if an author becomes a bestseller, that author will always stay a bestseller, will sell oodles of each of his books automatically, etc. But that's not the case. An author like R.A. Salvatore has legions of fans who love his Dragonlance Drizzit books and make them huge bestsellers. His Demon Awakens series sells well too, but not nearly as much as the Drizzit books. And if you are a fan of R.A. Salvatore, you might be able to tell me every little detail about old Drizz, but may not even know where Salvatore lives.

The best analogy, though sometimes I feel that perhaps it is insensitive to use it, is that fiction is like designer drugs. The author is the drug designer/pusher, and while they need the author to supply the drug -- and want the author to write faster -- it's the drug they love. Therefore, unless you are also working in Hollywood in some way where the cult of personality is a marketing strategy, trying to build a brand name just out of you, rather than building the brand name of your books, is going to have limited effectiveness with potential readers. It might make people a little bit more aware of you, if you somehow get a lot of followers, so that they recognize your name on a book, and if you write really funny blog posts, then some people might try your fiction on the grounds that it therefore may be good, but they are still going to be buying mostly on whether the story sounds interesting to them and people's word of mouth recommendations about the book, not about whether you the author are a flashy dresser or not. Fiction readers are marketing resistant. So for fiction writers -- who are not supplying information as an expert (non-fiction) or spectacle as attractive, cool person (actors, movies,) but written entertainment, the book is the brand.

 

[Laer Carroll]

Your usual clear and practical post, Kat. Just wanted to let you know how useful they often are to me. As are the comments of several other posters in this forum. It’s why I stick around.

… if you write really funny blog posts …

Facebook and personal blog posts are sometimes useful, but they are a lot of work to even do badly. And you have to do them frequently, or people forget you or get bored. No one will wait very long before they X your FB page or blog.

And doing them well … I know of exactly one writer who is so effortlessly witty and insightful with one-liners or pithy comments that they can maintain a blog day in and day out for years. I have known only four non-writers in a long life who are so verbally impressive.

I don’t say you should not have a FB page or personal blog. But be aware of what you’re getting into if you want them to further your writing career.